City pipelines must be kept separated

Welcome as it was, that huge $442,000 savings – if it could be considered that instead of an engineer’s miscalculation – on a 9,000-foot pipeline project was not the main topic of discussion when city councilmen considered pipeline bids at last week’s City Council meeting.
Rather, the principal discussion topic was whether or not one of the city’s major industrial clients could install a water line in the same trench as the line carrying wastewater from the new water treatment plant.
Councilman Don Rodolph raised the issue, asking City Manager Mark Skiles where the city stood in helping Tim Davis – the owner of Clinton Ice, LLC – get a line from the new water treatment plant over to Davis’ ice plant a short distance away.
“We have discussed plotting the plant so that pure R.O. (reverse osmosis treated) water could be provided to his plant,” answered Skiles. “He is aware we can bring a supply to him, but if it’s a line run from the R.O. plant to his place by the city, the city would have to engineer and design it and get it approved by DEQ (the Department of Environmental Quality). It would be a line installed purely for his personal use.”
Skiles said if Davis puts in a line himself between the two plants, all the city would have to do is set a meter outside its plant and let him hook up to it. If that were the case, he said DEQ would not be involved.
Rodolph said he’s been talking with Davis for three or four months. He wanted to know if the city has been communicating with him.
“Yes sir,” answered Skiles.
The city will have lines on both sides of the Farmrail railroad tracks which run through that area. One will be bringing water to the plant from the new Riverside Golf Course wells, and the other will be taking refuse removed from the water during the treatment process to a manhole near N. 28th Street and Dougherty Avenue to be dumped into the city sewer system.
DEQ regulations require that the lines be horizontally 10 feet apart so if there’s a break, the one carrying contaminants does not pollute the one carrying pure water. Presumably, that’s why they’ll be placed on opposite sides of the railroad tracks.
Rodolph said at Tuesday’s meeting he initially thought a line carrying treated water from the plant could be put in the same line with the one carrying affluent and Davis could hook onto it at the railroad tracks and run the water line on over to his plant.
Lonnie Teel, the city’s consultant on the project, spoke up quickly, saying that could not be done. He said DEQ would be coming out to inspect it and it would not pass muster.
“As soon as they inspect, can we put his line in?” asked Rodolph.
Both Skiles and Teel said sewer and water lines could not be put on top of one another or in the same ditch.
Rodolph wanted to know if the city had talked to Davis and made him aware of that.
“He knows the situation,” said Skiles.
Rodolph said Davis is not asking the city to pay for his line and eventually suggested that Skiles talk with him and let him know that it could not be put in the city’s trench. He said he wasn’t aware of that himself until that night’s council meeting.
Later Skiles told the Clinton Daily News: “Mr. Davis has been made aware the city would make pure water available to him when it’s being produced,” but he said it would take a dedicated line from the R.O. plant to the ice plant.
He added, “I question the legality of the city installing a line that is for the sole use of one entity. However, we would be willing to set a meter at the R.O. plant and it would be Mr. Davis’ responsibility to lay a line to the point of connection at the R.O. plant.”